Biotechnology has tremendous applications in the areas of agriculture, environment, fuels and chemicals, food and drink, gene cloning, and medicine. Also, when biotechnology applies to humans especially in genetic engineering, it stimulates controversial debates on bioethical issues. While biotechnology is increasing in the news, awareness of its overall significance remains limited. This is especially true for high school students. Many western governments have been planning to bridge the gap. In Hong Kong however, the pace is comparatively slow. This study is unique in being the first in Hong Kong to inquire into the student perception (knowledge and attitudes) of biotechnology. Based on the findings, this study is to make recommendations for integrating biotechnology in the science classes.
[Copyright © 1999 Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).]

The Primary General Studies Syllabus consists of four major content areas, namely Healthy Living, Living Environment, Natural World and Science & Technology. When these content areas are examined, discrete and rather independent elements are found in the topics of Science, Health Education and Social Studies, although a high degree of flexibility exists with respect to integration of these elements in teaching different themes of General Studies. The area of Living Environment is heavily social oriented whereas the areas of Natural World and Science & Technology are heavily science oriented. Furthermore, within the area Healthy Living, there is a high proportion of biology and health-related content knowledge associated with the topics covered. Given the significance of science and health components in the General Studies syllabus, a study has been initiated by our group of HKIEd Science Department staff to investigate the teaching competency of primary teacher trainees in science and health education components of General Studies. The study is a continuous one and is divided into several stages. In the initial stage of the project, a teaching competency self-evaluation questionnaire was designed and administered to representative groups of full-time and part-time HKIED teacher trainees to seek their self-evaluation feedback on their competency to teach science and health components of the General studies curriculum (Lui, Chan & Tsang, 1996). The competency questionnaire was composed of 3 major parts: a) Knowledge, b) Pedagogy, and c) degree of mastering specific General Studies science and health education topics (knowledge/ pedagogy). The teacher trainees felt that they needed to be better equipped with science and health knowledge for the teaching of science and health aspects of the General Studies curriculum. Furthermore, they felt there was not enough treatment of pedagogy as well as pedagogical content knowledge in science and health related components in HKIEd

Bioethics is defined in the Encyclopedia of Bioethics as'The systematic study of human conduct in the area of the life sciences and health care, insofar as this conduct is examined in the light of moral values and principles" (Reich, 1978). The term bioethics is almost synonymous with biomedical ethics (Beauchamp & Childress, 1989). Brody & Engelhardt (1987) point out: 'because we are all either prospective patients or family members of prospective patients, the bioethical issues raised by contemporary health care are unavoidable.' Therefore, bioethical issues are inevitably confronted by everyone sooner or later. In the classrooms, bioethical issues arc likely to be increasingly in the spotlight in coming years (Simpson, 1996), and there are several justifiable reasons for placing bioethical issues in the curriculum (O'Brien, 1996). Many modern advances in science and technology have social implications. Notably among them are bioethical issues, such as human fertility controls, sex pre-determination, birth controls, abortion, AIDS & sexually transmitted diseases, homosexuality, euthanasia, genetic manipulations, animal experimentation, and environmental protection. Attitudes towards these bioethical issues not only affect the welfare of the present generations, but also have serious social repercussions extending to the future generations. The Hong Kong Government have urged schools to help students develop moral qualities so that they would become ethical and responsible citizens. Such an aim of education as to build up moral and ethical character has been strongly advocated since 2500 years ago by Confucius, and recently notably by Johann Friedrich Herbart (Gangel & Benson, 1983). Therefore it is of great importance to see whether our Hong Kong college students have conscientious judgment in these bioethical issues. The present study intends to investigate (i) the concepts of ethics and bioethics, (ii) the attitudes & rationales towards various bioethical issues

Learning to teach is seen as a continuous process. Graduation from the initial teacher education programme is thus the first stage on which further professional developments are based. Studies have shown that shifts in teacher concerns are an indication of professional maturity. Therefore, investigations into teacher concerns provide a substantial basis for planning and implementing teacher education programmes. The present study aims to portray the professional development of Hong Kong pre-service primary teachers at the exit point of the pre-service teacher education programme. Measurements of teacher concerns of the student-teachers at the point they graduated from the programme were made. Follow-up interviews were conducted to find out the influencing factors that affect the perception of the student-teachers. The paper concludes by drawing on the implications of the findings on the design of the initial and further teacher education programmes.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]